“
I was happy to come to Paris… and it degenerated.
“If he is now fully happy in Paris, where he has extended until 2025, Neymar has a time regretted having left Barça for the French capital.
We remember: two years after his record transfer of €222 million to the Parc des Princes, the 29-year-old Brazilian international only dreamed of returning to Catalonia.
It's not a secret.
It is nevertheless one of the highlights of the documentary series which is devoted to “Ney” on the Netflix platform, “Neymar: perfect chaos”.
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The Brazilian number 10, however, recalls that it was he who chose to leave FC Barcelona, against the advice of his father, Neymar Sr, with whom relations are more strained than one can imagine.
Which Neymar Sr, a priori very close to Junior, very early took on the unofficial role of representative of his offspring.
“
Before, we were father and son.
Today, we are a bit distant.
We are on good terms, we have a good relationship, but it's more professional
, ”says the PSG striker in this three-part doc (1 hour).
And to add: “
My father taught me everything I know.
He watched over me 24 hours a day.
There comes a time when you don't want that anymore.
You end up losing your father…
”
Hagiographic and intended for the (very) general public
A series that is all in all quite hagiographic, without many unpublished images and which is aimed more at the general public than at the assiduous followers of football, PSG and Neymar, and which retraces without going into particular detail the highlights of the career and life of the "Ney", from the streets of Praia Grande in Paris, passing through Santos, Barcelona and the Brazilian national team. And in particular the moments of “chaos”, therefore, like this crisis in mondovision of the summer of 2019.
If he felt that "
it was the right time
" to leave Camp Nou in 2017, a few weeks after the famous "remontada", when his father "
did not want
" him to go, Neymar did an about
-face after two years marked by foot injuries which deprived him of cut-throat matches in the Champions League. “
When I wanted to leave PSG, it wasn't because of the club or the fans. I just knew that I would feel better somewhere else
,” he explains. The rest, we know it: Barça answered the call of the foot and made an offer that we will politely qualify as a puppet to PSG, who had no other choice but to reject it. Still, that's not how the player's ex-agent, Wagner Ribeiro, remembers:"
He didn't leave because the sheik, the big boss of Qatar, doesn't want to sell him, no matter the price. Barcelona made a big offer, higher than the one made by PSG to buy him from Barca.
“And Neymar to add:”
We tried to find an amicable agreement, but we could not leave.
»
Then there was this famous PSG-Strasbourg, the first match of the “Ney” in front of his… “supporters” after the transfer window closed.
Feeling "
betrayed
", as Marquinhos pointed out in the doc', the fans present at the Parc des Princes that day spent their time booing and insulting Neymar.
“
The supporters think with their hearts
”, continued “Marqui”, the Parisian captain.
“
I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it.
And yet… Honestly, I like this atmosphere.
When people are against me, I think of myself, I believe in myself
“, meanwhile told the main interested party, who had scored the winning goal in the “money-time”, a superb return from the left.
He had the courage to show up in the mixed zone after the game, saying he would play "
all matches as if they were away
" for the rest of the season.
“I never had anything against PSG supporters. Or the club. On the contrary, I am grateful to them. We are on the same side, we wear the same shirt. I'm here to help. »
Neymar, in the documentary "The perfect chaos"
And there was the indifference on both sides, the lunar atmosphere against Dortmund (“
What the fans did outside was magnificent, it brought something different, a good energy.
”) and the confinement, which helped the future thirty-something to refocus on football. Then the “Final 8” in Portugal. Reconciliation was on the way. Until Neymar's declaration of love and its extension, recorded in May 2021. “
I never had anything against PSG supporters. Or the club. On the contrary, I am grateful to them. We are on the same side, we wear the same shirt. I'm here to help
," he said.
In this case, he will have to wait a little longer before helping his club and his teammates again.
Hit in the ankle at the end of November, he only resumed racing on Wednesday.
A return to play against Nice on Monday (9:15 p.m.) in the Coupe de France seems premature.
Perhaps in Lille, on Sunday February 6?
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